Police chief criticises targets

Chris Sims said public confidence in the police was crucial

A senior police officer has criticised some Home Office targets, saying they have had a damaging impact on policing in England and Wales.

Chief Constable of Staffordshire Chris Sims said they encouraged a "policing to targets" culture, rather than one focusing on the public's needs.

He said he welcomed a government green paper aimed at cutting police red tape.

Home Office minister Tony McNulty said targets had improved "productivity", but it was "time to move on".

"Chris Sims said at its worst it was policing to targets. At its best, actually, it has turned in a performance over the last four, five years that has been incredible," Mr McNulty said.

Fifteen forms

Staffordshire is one of four constabularies taking part in the Public First Project - a government pilot scheme aimed at restoring common sense to policing.

Mr Sims said: "I think at its worst it allowed the 'policing to targets' culture to take hold, in the same way that we see in other public sectors at the moment - teaching to targets, teaching to tests - so at its worst, at its most extreme it encouraged that sort of policing to targets.

"Certainly, when I took over in Staffordshire about a year ago I was very clear that we needed to move away from that to focus very much on giving people the policing that they needed and absolutely, I think that that's the position that the green paper now supports and recognises."

At the end of the day it does lose people's goodwill Sgt Richard Moores Staffordshire Police

Sgt Richard Moores, from Staffordshire Police, told the BBC that currently any matter going to court could potentially involve filling in 15 forms.

"The paperwork certainly has changed in the 12 years that I've been in the job," he said.

"There seems to be more bureaucracy created and more forms that need to be filled in just as an auditable trail basically.

"It shows the defence whether or not there are any issues that might undermine our case."

'Chasing arrests'

The BBC's Andrew Hosken said some police officers felt Home Office targets had robbed them of their judgment and discretion.

A policy known as sanction detection was particularly unpopular. Sgt Moores said it encouraged officers to actively seek out arrests for any offence, no matter how minor, so they could be recorded against the target.

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One example of this was in the handling of people caught urinating in public, he said.

"It was getting to the point where people were chasing detections, going down back alleyways trying to find people who weren't standing in the middle of the street, but had gone out of the way to try to find somewhere to go to the toilet," Sgt Moores said.

"At the end of the day it does lose people's goodwill."

Mr Sims said he was in favour of the green paper which makes "public confidence" the biggest priority influencing the relationship between the Home Office and the police.

Mc McNulty said the green paper would bring about a "revolution" in policing.

"I think I'm accepting what Chris Sims has said that round the edges, at its worst, there were perverse incentives in the target regime," he said.

For the first few years the efficiency of the service was lifted, but about 18 months ago my view was we passed a point of diminishing returns Ken Jones President of the Association of Chief Police Officers

"But what I'm saying is that I think the success overall of the target regime has got us to the stage where we can now confidently move on from that and set parameters for the coming period that are more about freeing up the police to do what their local communities want them to do."

Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, told the BBC that targets had outlived their usefulness.

"For the first few years the efficiency of the service was lifted, but about 18 months ago my view was we passed a point of diminishing returns.

"But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we've also brought to book a lot of people who wouldn't have been brought to book if we hadn't gone down that route."

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